A firefighter was injured when he fell from a second-story
balcony while battling a three-alarm fire in Old Jefferson on Monday morning.
The firefighter was taken to nearby Ochsner Medical Center's main campus with minor injuries, including bumps and bruises, according to Joe Greco, director of the East Bank Consolidated Fire
Department.

The firefighter was standing on a balcony on the back of a
building in the 2300 block of Jefferson Highway when the balcony railing gave way.
Greco said the firefighter fell about 10 feet.

The fire destroyed Rio Vista Cleaners, the first-floor dry-cleaning business where the blaze is believed to have started, as well as three apartments on the second floor. The building is connected to two buildings that contain a pawn shop and an upholstery business. The fire spread to the middle building, causing extensive damage, Greco said.

Dispatchers received the first call reporting the fire at 10:46 a.m. Several witnesses described hearing an explosion before the blaze broke out.

Al Lowe, 50, who lives in an apartment above the dry-cleaning business, said he was about to take a shower when he heard and felt a boom. "It felt like an 18-wheeler hit the building," he said.

Lowe jogged downstairs and noticed thick, black smoke pouring out of several broken windows. He rushed back up to grab his phone and check on his neighbor.

"I opened the door and the hallway was full of smoke," he said. Lowe managed to help his neighbor, a man in his 70s, out of the building. He said the neighbor was taken to Ochsner Medical Center.

Greco said the blaze was particularly difficult to control because of a void in the first building's ceiling that made it tougher for firefighters to get to the flames. "We'll get it knocked down and then the fire flares back up," he said.

Fire engines and ladder trucks parked across the westbound lanes of Jefferson Highway on Monday morning as crews worked to extinguish the flames. State Police shut down the thoroughfare at Deckbar Avenue, rerouting traffic.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation Monday evening, Greco said.